Food manufacturers across the U.S. have been cutting staff as recalls, customer losses, and high operating costs strain already thin margins. In California, FreshRealm has now permanently closed its Tracy facility, ending 228 jobs at one of the company’s key production sites. The move marks another significant food-manufacturing loss for the state as the company restructures in bankruptcy.
FreshRealm permanently closed its Tracy plant and cut 228 jobs
FreshRealm, Inc. permanently closed its production facility at 2900 N. MacArthur Dr., Unit 300 in Tracy and cut 228 positions, according to California Employment Development Department WARN records. The state filing lists the action as a permanent closure in San Joaquin County, with layoffs effective June 27, 2026. The notice date was April 27, 2026, giving public confirmation of the scale and timing of the shutdown.
The closure came the same day FreshRealm and affiliated entities filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. In first-day court papers, the company identified the Tracy site as one of its main facilities and said it operated seven leased locations across the U.S. at varying levels of activity, from fully operating to already closed. Those filings show Tracy remained a central part of the company’s network even as its financial position deteriorated.
FreshRealm is not a consumer-facing restaurant chain, but it has played a large role behind the scenes in prepared meals and meal kits. Bankruptcy filings state that FreshRealm became the exclusive supplier of Blue Apron meal kits under a 10-year production and fulfillment agreement tied to a 2023 transaction. The company also took over U.S. operational assets connected to Marley Spoon in 2024, including production and fulfillment assets at the Tracy facility.
What the Tracy closure means in California
The confirmed California impact is limited, in public records, to the Tracy facility closure and the 228 workers named in the WARN filing. State records also show an earlier FreshRealm closure in San Clemente affecting 53 employees, effective January 31, 2026, but the Tracy filing is the larger of the two California actions disclosed in the 2025-2026 WARN report.
What remains unclear is how FreshRealm’s broader restructuring will affect other California operations tied to prior acquisitions. Court records reference Blue Apron leasehold interests in Richmond, California, while the WARN materials confirm Tracy and San Clemente actions. FreshRealm has not released a comprehensive public list of every California site affected by its bankruptcy process beyond what appears in WARN records and court filings.
The Tracy shutdown also stands out because it hits a logistics and manufacturing corridor that has long attracted food production and fulfillment employers. The WARN filing confirms the action as permanent rather than temporary, which means the listed jobs were not described as seasonal or short-term reductions. California’s WARN rules require notice for certain mass layoffs, relocations, and plant closures involving larger employers, and the state says those notices trigger Rapid Response services for affected workers.
Recalls, lost Walmart business and customer disputes drove the collapse
In bankruptcy papers, FreshRealm traced its decline to a series of food-safety incidents in 2025, including five withdrawal or recall-related events tied to Listeria monocytogenes contamination from suppliers. The filings state that on June 17, 2025, the company initiated a voluntary recall of specific Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo SKUs sold under the Marketside and Home Chef brands after earlier testing and contamination concerns. The company said those incidents disrupted production and fulfillment, reduced customer demand, and drained liquidity.
FreshRealm told the court that Walmart, described in the filings as a growing customer, later informed the company it would end the relationship in January 2026. Court records state Walmart accounted for more than 20% of FreshRealm’s revenue before the split, and that the loss forced the company to close already unprofitable and underused facilities in San Clemente, California, and Indianapolis, Indiana. The filings also estimate tens of millions of dollars in business-interruption losses tied to the recall events and their aftermath.
The company was also contending with strain in another core line of business. Bankruptcy documents say Blue Apron represented about 70% of FreshRealm’s total revenue at the petition date, but the relationship had become contentious, with Blue Apron asserting breaches in 2025 and alleging delayed delivery of about 1,400 meal kits from Tracy in November 2025. For California residents and customers, the practical takeaway is that the Tracy facility is closed and the layoffs are already effective, while the company’s remaining assets and contracts continue to be addressed through the Chapter 11 process.